DHS Secretary Blames Parents and Open Borders Advocates for Deaths of Children

As human rights groups,Democratic lawmakers, and the United Nationsdemanded an independent probeinto the deaths of two Guatemalan children in US Border Patrol custody, President Donald Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen sparked outrage on Wednesday bydeclaringthat “open borders” advocates and the kids’ “own parents” — not Trump’s inhumane treatment of immigrants — are to blame.

“Our system has been pushed to a breaking point by those who seek open borders,” Nielsen said in astatementjust hours after eight-year-old Felipe Alonzo-Gomezdied in US custody on Christmas day. “Smugglers, traffickers, and their own parents put these minors at risk by embarking on the dangerous and arduous journey north.”

Sec. Nielsen’s statement on the death of an 8 year old migrant child in @CBP custody is really remarkable. She acknowledges that Jakelin Caal was the first death of a minor in CBP care in a decade, and then blames opponents of Trump policies for humanitarian crisis at the border